Gunnar Nordahl

Nils Gunnar Nordahl (; 19 October 1921 – 15 September 1995)

Nordahl is Milan's all-time record goalscorer, and he long held the record for most goals for a single club in the history of Italian league, before being surpassed by Francesco Totti in January 2012. He still holds the record for goals per appearance in Italy. He had several nicknames in Italy, whereof the most famous was Il Cannoniere ("The Prime Gunner"). He was also known as Il Pompiere ("The Fireman") and Il Bisonte ("The Bison'").

A full international between 1942 and 1948, he won 33 caps and scored 43 goals for the Sweden national team. He represented his country at the 1948 Summer Olympics, where he was the joint top scorer alongside Denmark's John Hansen as Sweden won gold.

Nordahl is considered to be one of the greatest Swedish players and one of the best strikers of all-time. In 2017, he was included in FourFourTwo magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of all time, at the 54th position.

He is the father of former footballer Thomas Nordahl.

Italy Nordahl transferred to AC Milan on 22 January 1949. This made him the first Swedish player to play in a foreign league. Later, he would team up with his national team strike partners, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm to form the renowned Gre-No-Li trio. Playing eight seasons with Milan, he was Serie A's top scorer a record five times (1949–50, 1950–51, 1952–53, 1953–54 and 1954–55).

Nordahl is the third-highest Serie A goalscorer of all time, with 225 goals in 291 matches, That makes Nordahl the top goalscorer among non-Italian players, and he is also the most efficient goalscorer goals in Serie A ever with 0.77 goals/match. Nordahl, together with the mentioned Gre-No-Li is today legendary in Milan. When Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko scored his 100th goal in Serie A for Milan, it is said that some old Milanese supporters commented: "Well he can double that number, and then add another 26, then, and just then, he has passed Il Cannoniere."

International career Nordahl was first called up to the Sweden national team in 1942. In 1948, he helped Sweden to win the Olympic football tournament, achieving top tournament scoring status. The Swedish team also included his brothers Bertil and Knut Nordahl. Nordahl's transfer to Milan forced him to retire from the national team, as the rules at the time prevented professionals from serving on the Sweden national team and unavailable to the 1950 FIFA World Cup as were Gren and Liedholm. His 33 matches in the national team resulted in scoring 43 goals. The latter was discontinued in 1958, when Sweden, like many other nations, lifted the professional ban for respective national team consideration.

Career statistics

Club

International Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Nordahl goal.

Honours IFK Norrköping Serie A: 1950–51, 1954–55 Latin Cup: 1951, 1956

Sweden 1955 AC Milan Hall of Fame Nordic Football Championship top scorer: 1937–1947 Allsvenskan Player of the Century: 1924–2024

Records Most goals scored for AC Milan: 221 Most Serie A Top Scorer titles: 5 Most consecutive Serie A Top Scorer titles: 3 (record shared with Michel Platini) Most braces scored in Serie A: 49 (record shared with Silvio Piola) Most hat-tricks scored in Serie A: 17 (all with AC Milan)